to move the troops at any moment. This order, I regret to say, was not promptly obeyed. Dispatches received during the night indicated that the enemy was threatening Coosawhatchie by way of Bee's creek and the Coosawhatchie river. At ten o'clock the morning of the 6th, General Gartrell telegraphed me that the enemy was landing from twelve barges at Gregory's point on Tulifinny river; that he had moved forward a part of his force to meet them. The battalion of South Carolina cadets, having arrived at Pocotaligo, was ordered to guard the Tulifinny trestle, and aid in checking any advance on Coosawhatchie. A section of artillery, supported by the battalion of the Thirty-second Georgia regiment, was ordered to a point on the left of the Tulifinny, from which it was thought it could drive off or annoy the enemy's transports and barges, and I started myself to ride to Coosawhatchie. But before reaching Tulifinny bridge, the enemy, having landed in much larger force than was at first supposed, had pressed forward up Gregory's neck to the Coosawhatchie or State road, and having driven back a battalion of the Fifth Georgia regiment (about one hundred and fifty men), interposed between me and Coosawhatchie.
Brigadier-General Gartrell has not submitted a report, but I ascertain from a conversation with him and his subordinate commanders, that on first receiving information of the advance of the enemy, he sent forward only a small battalion (one hundred and fifty men) of the Fifth Georgia, which encountered the enemy on the Gregory's Point road, about a mile from its junction with the State road, and drove back the advance guard. But the enemy, discovering that the handful of men in their front was not the twentieth part of their own number, pressed forward and nearly enveloped the Fifth Georgia, forcing it back. The Georgia reserve and a section of artillery were then sent by Gartrell to the support of the Fifth Georgia, but it was too late; the entire line soon gave way, fell back in confusion, crossed the Coosawhatchie river and partially destroyed the bridge immediately under the guns, and within easy and effective musket range of our works at Coosawhatchie. Major John Jenkins, whom I had sent forwad to ascertain the position of the enemy, was conducting the battalion of cadets under Major White into action, and that gallant body of youths was moving at double quick, manifesting an eagerness to encounter the enemy, which they subsequently so handsomely sustained in action, and would in ten minutes have opened fire on the enemy's
